Seven Tricks to Better Remember Phonetic Components in Chinese Characters

The examples will all be in Traditional because they are closest to the style used when these characters were first created. All of these rules still carry over to Simplified (Mandarin is still Mandarin after all), but the phonetics are sometimes obscured or removed and replaced by simpler components in Simplified characters.

For those of you studying Chinese, you’ve probably noticed that the vast majority (over 90%) of characters contain a component that indicates how that character should be pronounced. Many of these are nice and clear, and the phonetic tells you exactly how the compound character should be pronounced (闌 lán used as a phonetic in 蘭 lán, 攔 lán, 瀾 lán). But more often than not, it’s not 100% identical to the phonetic component. The most common changes, however, are highly predictable and noticeable: oftentimes the tone changes (包 bāo used as a phonetic in 抱 bào and 飽 bǎo) and/or the initial consonant shifts to another consonant within its same consonant group (干 gān in 刊 kān and 汗 hàn). For those of you who have studied the grouping of consonants in pīnyīn, you’ll know that “b, p, m, f” form a group (labials), “d, t, n, l” form a group (alveolars or denti-alveolars), “g, k, h” form a group (velars), “j, q, x” form a group (palatals or alveolo-palatals), “zh, ch, sh, r” form a group (retroflexes), and “z, c, s” form a group (dentals or denti-alveolars).

Just knowing that and being aware of when a character component is being used as a phonetic component helps a lot when trying to memorize lots and lots of characters. But there are times when the phonetic is even less clear. The following are some general rules about other possible alternations in Mandarin when a component is being used phonetically.

(1)   ⟨u⟩ and ⟨ü⟩ alternate (and occasionally ⟨i⟩ and ⟨ü⟩).

吾 wú as “wu” in 悟 wù, but “yu” in 語 yǔ

吳 wú as “wu” in 誤 wù, but “yu” in 俁 yǔ and 娛 yú

昷¹ wēn as “wen” in 溫 wēn and 瘟 wēn, but “yun” (from *üen) in 醞 yùn and 慍 yùn

元 yuán as “yuan” in 沅 yuán, but “wan” in 玩 wán and 完 wán (which reverts in 院 yuàn).

(2)   ⟨j, q, x⟩ alternate with a null initial.

軍 jūn in 運 yùn

甲 jiǎ in 鴨 yā

午 wǔ in 許 xǔ (also u/ü alternation from rule 1)

(3)   ⟨zh, ch, sh⟩ alternate with ⟨d, t⟩ for historical reason (and occasionally with medial ⟨i/y⟩).

Compare 尚 shàng in 常 cháng and 嘗 cháng with 當 dāng and 堂 táng

單 dān in 彈 dàn with 戰 zhàn and 禪 chán

重 zhòng in 種 zhǒng and 衝 chōng with 動 dòng

昜 yáng in 場 chǎng and 湯 tāng

(4)    The presence or absence of medial ⟨i⟩ often alternates (as do the other medials ⟨u⟩ and ⟨ü⟩ but rarely) adding or dropping it in compounds.

Compare 辡 biàn in 辨 biàn with 辦 bàn

苗 miáo in 描 miáo and 喵 miāo with 貓 māo

兆 zhào in 桃 táo and 跳 tiào (also rule 3)

占 zhàn in 店 diàn and 點 diǎn (also rule 3)

(5)   ⟨q, j, x⟩ are derived either from the ⟨g, k, h⟩ series or from the ⟨z, c, s⟩ before ⟨i⟩ or ⟨ü⟩. (This is why Běijīng is spelled with a “k” in the historical spelling Peking.) Therefore, when triggered by another rule to change the medial, they alternate.

Compare 雚 guàn in 觀 guān and 歡 huān with 權 quán (also rule 1)

戔 jiān in 淺 qiǎn and 錢 qián with 殘 cán (also rule 4)

丂 kǎo in 巧 qiǎo (rule 4)

(6)    Vowels often change when a medial changes, drops, or is added (rules 1 and 4).

覺 jué (as in 覺得) and 覺 jiào (as in 睡覺)

卻 què used as a phonetic in 腳 jiǎo

夬 guài used in 快 kuài, but then in 決 jué and 缺 quē (also rule 5)

工 gōng in 江 jiāng (also rule 5)

(7)    ⟨l⟩ alternates with the other groups from historical clusters, particularly with ⟨g, k, h⟩.

考 kǎo and 老 lǎo are from the same word (would've been something like *klǎo)

監 jiān in 艦 jiàn and 檻 kǎn, but then in 籃 lán and 覽 lǎn (rules 4 and 5)

柬 jiǎn in 揀 jiǎn, but then in 練 liàn and 闌 lán (also rule 4)

These rules are really only helpful when only one or a few are in place and one can still make out the phonetics if they know the rules. When many of them are working at once (or other changes not listed here occur), it may be a lot harder to notice how characters are phonetically related. For example, 䜌 luán used phonetically in 戀 liàn, 變 biàn, 蠻 mán, and 彎 wān. There are many, many phonetics that don’t follow the rules above such as 白 bái and 皮 pí used phonetically for “bo” and “po” in many characters.

These rules only work for Mandarin; they do not apply to other Sinitic languages. For example, Cantonese never underwent the process of palatalizing velars ⟨g, k, h⟩ before high front vowels ⟨i⟩ and ⟨ü⟩, and thus their alternation with ⟨j, q, x⟩ does not exist. Mandarin has lost syllable final ⟨p⟩, ⟨t⟩, and ⟨k⟩ and fused final ⟨m⟩ with ⟨n⟩, but most other Sinitic languages have not, and their phonetic components account for that too.

Keep in mind the above rules are working guidelines to help remember some of the modern day alternations. They are affected by historical changes, but they are NOT equivalent to the rules of the historical process Chinese underwent before becoming modern Mandarin. The historical linguistic changes are far more complicated, having occurred over thousands of years. Study of the Baxter-Sagart system of reconstruction of Old Chinese is a good way to learn more about the history of the phonetic changes of Sinitic languages.

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Footnotes:
1: The old form traditional variant won't display properly when published. (𥁕, ⿱囚皿)